Shame I don’t need any more.
It looks like there is also a promotion in the U.S.
Is the AirSpy mini much better than FlightAware SDRs?
Yes. I has a much better dynamic range. That means it can hear a wider variety of signal strengths.
It generally requires more CPU and a pre-amp(for ADS-B frequencies).
Actual improvements are location specific. It worked for me.
2 Likes
Thanks. I keep reading about these here. I’m still on the fence due to having to add the amp and I’m not sure if my feeder PC has USB 2.0. I need to check that.
I am using the Airspy since about a week or so. My message rate went up about 25/30% and I think that is a lot!
I do see more planes further away where I did see only a few, so seeing more planes, yes.
I am using a Pi 4, Airspy Mini and an Uputronic filter. There are some very interesting threads here. Will take some time to read them, but it worth your time
3 Likes
I think you’re supposed to have the amp close to the antenna, but I have seen pictures of people’s setups where they have the amp connected to the SDR. I can’t put the amp up near the antenna without a great deal of work. Does it work OK with the amp connected to the SDR?
1 Like
Lots of us have similar challenges with getting an amp at the antenna. If you have a short or high quality (e.g. LMR-400) cable run from the antenna, you should do okay with amp near receiver. In my case, I’m range limited by mountains and trees, so I can’t seem to improve any more after trying various tests of amps and filters over the past year. I always go back to Airspy with an RTL-SDR pre-amp on a Pi4 which increased my performance stats by roughly 20+% over the FA Blue stick. Uputronics pre-amp was probably just as good. It’s bulky but runs much cooler.
2 Likes
So I have the orange FlightFeeder, can a person just take this AirSpy mini and replace the pro stick ?
Check out the threads n this forum. Or check
https://github.com/wiedehopf/airspy-conf
1 Like
No, you cannot and you should not. The FlightFeeder still belongs to FA and runs on a custom image.
I have about 40 feet of RJ-8 TV cable from the antenna to the SDR. At my age it was a major chore mounting the antenna about 28 feet above the ground and to add the amp up there would require me to completely disassemble the tower - along with my 978 tower which is attached to it. Too much work.
On the bright side I remembered that I have a nice amp that I used to use when my antenna was mounted on the roof.
2 Likes
I bought one. 
1 Like
Bet you will happy as soon as you get it
I expect I will be happy after I install the AirSpy, attach the Habamp 3, adjust the gain, configure the AirSpy and graphs1090! But yeah. 
Are you talking about the orange stick from Flightaware or the Flightfeeder from FA itself?
Orange stick: Yes, can be replaced. But the Airspy only won’t help
Flightfeeder: There is no stick you can replace, so the question is no.
Isn’t the coax connected to a pro stick ? Obviously, it (Airspy mini) won’t fit in there but just a hypothetical question?
I have the orange FlightFeeder FROM FA. justl Like this ↓
Just buy a Pi4 2Gb and a decent PSU.
1 Like
Apologies in advance for this. I’m reading the thread “HOWTO: Airspy mini and Airspy R2: Piaware / dump1090-fa configuration” and I’m at a total loss where to start. Can someone please give me the TL;DR on this? I have a Linux PC running Piaware, dump1090-fa and dump978-fa and other feeders. I want to replace my FA ProStick on 1090 and replace it with the AirSpy. I don’t know if I can keep using dump1090-fa, or if I have to use readsb. And if so, how to uninstall dump1090-fa which I installed using abcd567 script.
I plugged the AirSpy into a test box running Ubuntu and ‘rtl_sdr test’ shows “No supported devices found.” The light on the AirSpy is not lit. But when I run ‘lsusb’ it shows “Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1d50:60a1 OpenMoko, Inc. Airspy”. Do I need to add a driver to get ‘rtl_sdr’ to recognize the AirSpy?
Sorry for all the dumb questions and thanks!
This readme is recommended: GitHub - wiedehopf/airspy-conf: Configure airspy_adsb for use with readsb or piaware.
Just run it … it’ll work fine.
1 Like